Palace takes their place in History

When Crystal Palace took to the field for their home opener on May 4, 2007, they entered into the long but sporadic history of professional soccer in the central Maryland region. Believe it or not, the first professional team to call the area home was back in 94. Not 1994, but 1894. That year, six owners of National League professional baseball teams decided to get some additional use out of their stadiums by starting a professional soccer league. They formed the American League of Professional Football that included Brooklyn, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington and the Baltimore Orioles. The league did not finish it’s one and only season but the Orioles were 4-0 with 24 goals for and only 3 allowed. It would be 40 years before the next professional team called Baltimore home. Beginning in the 1934-35 season Baltimore would be represented in the American Soccer League (ASL) with at least one team for the next fifteen years. For nine of those years, Baltimore had two representatives in the league. Their names were Baltimore Canton, Baltimore S.C., Baltimore Germans and the Baltimore Americans. Additionally, the Americans were the 1945-46 American Soccer League champions.

The Baltimore Americans withdrew from the ASL during the 1948-49 season and the region was again without professional soccer. This time the wait was only four years for in 1953 the Baltimore Rockets represent the area for four seasons. Baltimore Pompei represented the region from 1957-58 into the 1960-61 season, the team withdrew during the 60-61 season. In 1966-67 St. Gerard’s represented Baltimore and won the league in their one and only ASL season. In 1967-68 with the Baltimore Bays having just completed their inaugural season. The Baltimore Flyers were the last professional area team to play a traditional fall-winter-spring season. Summertime soccer had arrived in America and all outdoor leagues would henceforth play a spring-summer-fall season.

The Modern Era of professional soccer in the central Maryland region

The modern era in US soccer began in the spring of 1967. Two professional leagues began play mostly in large Football/Baseball Stadiums across the country. The National Professional Soccer League (NPSL) consisted of 10 teams among which were the Baltimore Bays. Ironically, as with the first professional team in the region, they were also owned by the Baltimore Orioles baseball team. That year the Bays lost the NPSL Championship to the Oakland Clippers. Teams in the NPSL were put together with players from across the globe. The United Soccer Association (USA) went the opposite route for their first (and only) season. They imported 12 entire teams from Europe and South America. Wolverhampton represented Los Angeles, Stoke City became the Cleveland Stokers and Sunderland were the Vancouver Royal Canadians. Aberdeen of Scotland played as the Washington Whips. Following that first season, the two leagues merged into the North American Soccer League (NASL). The Bays played 3 seasons, the third of which was a scaled down league of only five teams. For the first two seasons the Bays had used Memorial Stadium as their home base. The last season was played at Kirk Field.

The region was again without a team in 1970 and 1971. However in 1972 two teams called Baltimore home. The Baltimore Stars played a ten game season in the American Soccer League with home games at Kirk Field. This would be their one and only season. The other team that year was the brainchild of the play-by-play man of the Baltimore Bullets and later the New York Cosmos. Jim Karvellas, who recently passed away at the age of 71, founded a new Baltimore Bays. He actually referred to them as the Bays phase II. Karvellas’ original intent was to play in the NASL but the 72 season consisted entirely of friendlies against foreign opposition including Werder Bremen, Moscow Dynamo and Birmingham City. The following year their opposition included Moscow Torpedo and Santos of Brazil, including Pelé. 1973 also saw them play a full ASL schedule. International matches were played at Memorial Stadium except for the Torpedo match played at Johns Hopkins. The ASL schedule was played at what was then known as Catonsville Community College.

In 1974 the Baltimore Comets arrived at Memorial Stadium. They made the NASL playoffs that season but the following year moved to a makeshift facility on the campus of what is today known as Towson University called Burdick Field. 1975 would be the final season of the Comets in Baltimore but they would live for a long time eventually becoming Baltimore’s indoor soccer nemesis, the San Diego Sockers.

During the first part of the 80’s, professional soccer was on the decline in the United States in 1985, only 8 teams played semi-professional soccer. Four teams in the 2 nd Division United Soccer League (not the same league of which Crystal Palace is now a member) and four in the 3 rd division Western Soccer Alliance (WSA). In 1986 it got worse as the United Soccer League ceased operations and the played with seven teams of which only 6 were based in the United States. However, rebirth was just around the corner as a tiny indoor soccer league was about to be born in the southwest that would become the largest league in North American Soccer.

Rebirth the SISL and the New ASL

In the winter of 1986-87 a tiny operation in Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico began as the Southwest Indoor Soccer League. This five-team league held their matches in indoor facilities and hoped to feed players to the Major Indoor Soccer League and the American Indoor Soccer Association. This “little league that could” would grow into today’s United Soccer Leagues. Along the way, there would be numerous name changes and a concentration solely on the outdoor game.

In 1988, a new league was created on the east coast that once again had a central Maryland team. It was the third entity known as the American Soccer League that included a third version of the Bays.These Bays howeverwere the Maryland Bays. They started out by using the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) as their home field and in 1990 moved to Cedar Lane Park in Columbia, Maryland. Also in 1990, the Bays were champions of the American Soccer League and defeated the Western Soccer League champion San Francisco Bay Blackhawks in penalties for the American Professional Soccer League title. The Maryland Bays would only play one more season before the region was again without professional soccer.

This time however, the area was only without soccer for one season. In 1993, another Bays team, this time labeled Baltimore, took the pitch at UMBC. This version of the Baltimore Bays started play in the United States Interregional Soccer League, one of the previous names of today’s United Soccer League’s. They played for five seasons and hold the distinction of having participated in the most combined league and playoff matches of any area team in the modern era. This team played 88 regular season and 3 playoff matches in their outdoor incarnation. Two members of Crystal Palace’s coaching staff played for this team, Jim Cherneski and Derrick Marcano. The Baltimore Bays also participated in the I-League, the USL’s indoor league. The indoor Bays compiled a regular season record of 50 – 2 although it must be pointed out that many of the team’s victories came against limited schedule teams. More impressive is the 9 – 2 record in playoff matches and the final three championships of the I-League. Following the 1997 – 98 indoor season the team was sold and moved to Maryland’s Eastern Shore where they continued to play as the Sharks for two more seasons.

In 1999 an ill-fated operation known as the Maryland Mania was launched and began play in the A-League. The A-league was a direct descendent of the American Soccer League that had been founded in 1988 and which had been brought into the United Soccer League’s fold in 1997. This team started play at UMBC but following an ownership crisis they moved. The Mania played their final 9 home games at Anne Arundel Community College in Arnold, Maryland. Thus they became the first professional soccer team to play league matches in Anne Arundel County.

Finally, one last team played in the Central Maryland region prior to the arrival of Crystal Palace. While this team was not professional, it is worth mentioning because it was a member of the United Soccer League’s Premier Development League from 2001 through 2004. The Chesapeake Dragons at first called Bowie State University home but later played home matches at the Maryland Soccerplex (where Crystal Palace will play two home matches this season) in Germantown, Maryland. Additionally, there was a person involved with the team who had a long history of soccer in the area. Lincoln Phillips had played for the Baltimore Bays in 1968, the Washington Darts 1969 – 1971, the Bays again in 1972-73 and finally the Baltimore Comets in 1974 and 1975. Phillips was also the head coach of Howard University from 1970 through 1980. Phillips was one of the team’s coaches, one son, Derek played for the team and another, Sean, was the General Manager. Lincoln is currently the Technical Director of the Trinidad and Tobago National Team.

While the central Maryland region has a long history of professional soccer spanning 114 years, this season is only the 43 rd that will see a team from the region participate in a league schedule. There have been three league champions, the 1945-46 Baltimore Americans, St. Gerard’s in 1966-67 and the 1990 Maryland Bays.